Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Go to bullet for deer in 6mm?

Only 2 deer for us with the .243 Win. A big doe my son shot was using a Speer 100 gr. boattail ( 1220) was the number . the bullet hit real high and forward but it went 40' and that was it. Mine was a smaller doe, 100 gr. Hornady interlock boattail ( 2443?) .

Single best bullet on deer using the 243 is a 100 gn round nose from hornady. Sadly, these have been discontinued, but if you can find them, they hit like a freight train!

Deer, first pick... Ballistic Tip.

I've loaded a lot of 243's over the years for deer hunting. For some reason or another, my most accurate loads have always been with the 85-95 grain bullets. I've never been able to get the accuracy I'm looking for out of a 100 grain bullet. My son has killed a number of deer, including a couple of big bucks, using the 85 grain Sierra BTHP, as his Model 700 really likes that bullet. I load it with an over max dose of W760, and it's really moving on. In the rifle my grandkids use, a Youth Model 700, I use a 95 SST or a 100 soft point. In my 243 LVSF, I like the 90 or 95 grain Noslers if I can find them, which I've not been able to as of late, so I use the 95 grain SST.

The 243 is no different from any other chambering, just put a good bullet where it's supposed to go, and it'll do the job. It's really not rocket science.

I handloaded the old Speer 105 Round Nose in my dad's .243. For those East Texas deer they were still too stout, or that Lot was tough. He quit hunting after that year and sold the rifle. I remember Byron Dalrymple's writings on the 243 and 80gr for the Hill Country deer doing better than the 100 even. These were small deer. I think thats what alot of folks don't realize why Texans like to use the smaller calibers...those deer just don't take much killing. Now, those big West Texas Mulies and south Texas deer can be bruisers, but they still die form 243s! I too prefer the 80-95 grains in 6mm rounds.

Here's a photo of a mature eastern Montana buck Eileen took with her semi-custom .243 Winchester Husqvarna a few years ago. He appeared near last legal light, near some very thick timber and brush (you can see the edge behind her) and she decided to use the high shoulder/spine shot to anchor the buck. He dropped right there, and the 100-grain Nosler Partition exited. She also used the same bullet in the the .240 Weatherby Magnum in an Ultra Lightweight Mark V, with similar results on both mule deer and whitetails.

The Partition shot very well in both 6mm rifles, but she'd been using the 100-grain TTSX in her NULA .257 Roberts for years now, with great results both on big deer and cow elk, because it shoots better than the 100 Partition in that rifle.

In my .243's I shoot the 100 grain Flat Base Spire point Nosler bullet .

I’m really liking the Sierra Gamechangers. They appear to hold together slightly better than the nosler ballistic tip and have superior BC. Inside of 250 yards any cup and core or mono will do the trick rather nicely.

Killed 10 or so Whitetails with the factory 90gr gamechanger from 40 yards to 436 yards and got exits on all but two which were head on shots. Great blood trails and all traveled less than 40 yards if they ran at all.

This year I’m hand loading 100gr Gamechangers and did a little water jug testing at 35 yards. Loaded down the charges to replicate impact velocity around 150 yards or so.

Results below. Velocity is 10 from chrono. Last value is retained weight in grains. The Core separated from the jacket on the BT and the Eld-x, but not that gamechanger. All bullets shown we’re recovered from the 4th (milk) jug. So penetration was adequate for all. Note- a 95gr Barnes LRX penetrated through the 4th jug and only dimpled the 5th jug and bounce off and I could find it in the grass. Folks smarter than me will say water jugs are tougher on bullets than deer bones.

Pic below is cold bore shots on consecutive days with a Tikka 6mm Creedmoor 22” @3100fps, at 236 yards, 4” gong. Still has over 1100 ft/lbs energy at 500 yards.

I'm really liking the 90 grain Gamechangers as well, running them at 3120 fps.

Im late to the party here but Ive killed a pretty nice sized pile of deer with a 243. I guess my favorite is the 95 NBT.... the 90 gr version seems to be just as tough and works as well. Thing is... Ive only really used one bullet I wasnt real happy with and that was a 100 gr Sierra BT. I have a large stash of 95 gr nbt's I bought up from SPS on sale a few years ago as well as a large stash or 100 gr SP Hornady's. Lot of things work well in a 243. Ive killed them with everything from an 80 gr ttsx to a 105 Speer.

My go to 6mm bullets for all deer, goats out here.
85g sierra bthp
90g sierra tgk
90g nosler hunting bt
95g nosler hunting bt

Same here.

Shot hogs with the 100g Hornady btsp...should tell you something. No flies on a 95g SST, great penetration and expansion on broadside shots. I shot a doe in the Azz as she walked away from me, about 100 yds, the bullet broke the front shoulder and was lodged under the skin about to exit....the ony 85g TSX I have ever found.

Deer shot with the 95g partition bleed less, but are running dead.

Nice one.

My .240 prefers the 100 NPT to all others. It's never a bad thing when a rifle prefers a Partition.

Terminal performance is legendary, has been for a LONG time...

My .257R does great with the 100 TTSX over a max load of H-100V. It kills'em pretty dead, too.

DF

I loaded up some Sierra 85 gr HPBT for a 243win several years ago after all the positive reviews I read. I shot a buck at under 75yds his back feet came straight in the air and when they came down he took off, 3 of use searched 2 hours before it got dark and 3 hours after dark, went back and searched 4 more hours the next morning, never did find it. The rest of the ones I had loaded up, near 100 of them made holes in paper and I reloaded them with hornady 100gr sp and no more problems like that.

I lived in MN for 15 years, and my wife was from Chisholm. I hunted with family north of there and was about half way up toward International Falls.
Same, wooded and swampy. The 243 worked just fine, even at 30 below. In those days I was just using factory 100 grain ammo.

Most of the bucks over that way, were pretty good sized animals... they 243 never failed me., and they weren't big tracking jobs.
had more tracking jobs with those in the party using 06s... but then I think that was more the fault of the shooter than the cartridge.

In 2019 Ruger did a special run for Talos Distributors of Varminter No.1’s in 243 Winchester with 1:7.7” barrel twist. I picked one of these up still NIB earlier this year at a local gun shop. Shoots great with N165 and the 108 grain Berger Elite Hunter. Have not hunted with it extensively yet but it did drop a nice 8 point whitetail handily with one shot at about 125 yds a few weeks ago.

I'm in the 90 gr, Nosler AB or 95 gr. BT crowd.
The 95 gr. BT is adequate for most things, but if I wanted absolute certainty of penetration and can afford loosing a bit of accuracy the 90 gr. AB is tough to beat.